Free Republic

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the world’s Western central banks lie vaults holding gargantuan piles of physical gold bars… or at least that’s what they all claim. The gold bars are part of their respective foreign currency reserves, which include all the usual fiat currencies like the dollar, the pound, the yen and the euro. Collectively, the governments/central banks of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are believed to hold an impressive 23,349 tonnes of gold in their respective reserves, representing more than $1.3 trillion at today’s gold price. Beyond the...

10 Countries Sitting On Gigantic Piles Of Gold Mamta BadkarOct. 8, 2012, 6:44 AMAP Images Gold prices have been supported by central bank gold purchases. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), global central banks bought 157.5 tonnes of gold in the second quarter, up 63 percent quarter-over-quarter and up 137.9 percent year-over-year. In fact, there is a school of thought that suggests euro zone members use gold as collateral for sovereign debt issuance to keep bond yields. We put together a list of the countries with the biggest official gold holdings as reported by the WGC last week. We...

The mainstream media in the United States is almost totally ignoring one of the most important trends in global economics. This trend is going to cause the value of the U.S. dollar to fall dramatically and it is going to cause the cost of living in the United States to go way up. Right now, the U.S. dollar is the primary reserve currency of the world. Even though that status has been chipped away at in recent years, U.S. dollars still make up more than 60 percent of all foreign currency reserves in the world. Most international trade (including the...

South Korea boosted its gold holdings by nearly a third in July, buying 16 tonnes to diversify its massive foreign exchange reserves. South Korea's central bank said it now holds 70.4 tonnes of gold, after paying $810 million last month for the purchase. The increase supported expectations that central banks will remain gold's key buyer as increased volatility in global markets and waning confidence in the U.S. dollar fuel a global drive to divest from the U.S. currency and government debt securities. The Bank of Korea paid about $1,582 per ounce on average, slightly lower than the average spot gold...

WORLD CENTRAL BANKS ON 'RED ALERT' Joe Weisenthal Aug. 2, 2012, 4:15 PM Jon Hilsenrath, the world's best central bank reporter, says that the conclusion from this week is that the world's big central banks (the Fed and the ECB, natch) are on 'red alert' over the state of the US economy. From WSJ: Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi, with words but not yet actions, demonstrated this week that they are on red alert about the global economy. Expectations are now high that Mr. Bernanke's Federal Reserve and Mr. Draghi's European Central Bank will act soon to address those worries....

As Spanish protesters continue to rally outside the headquarters of financial institution Bankia in Madrid, a proactive group within the movement have taken their point further and filed an official criminal complaint against the former management of the bank [1]. Like many other nations around the world the Spanish people face crippling austerity due to the bailing out of the corrupt global financial system, which collectively crashed the world’s economy due to reckless lending and fraudulent investments. Bankia, which was bailed out and partially nationalised like Britain’s RBS, was a causative factor in Spain’s spiraling debt crisis, and in order...

STOCKS STAGE GINORMOUS RALLY: Here's What You Need To Know Simone Foxman June 6, 2012Markets across the world staged a major rally today, and central banks are at the center of the chatter. But first, your scoreboard: Dow: 12,398; +271 pts S&P 500: 1,312; +27 pts NASDAQ: 2,841; +63 pts Now for the day's top stories: * Markets began rallying in the pre-market after WSJ's star Federal Reserve reporter John Hilsenrath wrote last night that euro woes, disappointing economic data, and strains in financial markets "have prompted a shift at the Federal Reserve, putting back on the table the possibility...

Entire Audio interview of Jim Sinclair. (No transcript as of yet)

Martin Armstrong is back on the show to talk about what's really happening to the world financial markets. He explains how flimsy the entire Euro structure was from the get-go. He advised the leaders to unify Europe both monetarily and fiscally, but they rejected that advice, rightly believing that theexpanded European Union would never have been approved. His only surprise is that the entire structure held together as long as it has. He believes that Germany will be forced to inflate, because no one is willing to accept the consequences of massive deflation, complete with bank failures and widespread unemployment....

Gary Wagner has been a trader and a market technician for over 25 years. In early in 2009 he began to focus his attention on one market: Gold. The yellow metal, gold, began to rally in 2008, but Gary knew the best was yet to come. He believed that gold was poised for an incredible and explosive upside move. Thus the GoldForecast was born. Gary’s daily video newsletter is always interesting and often profitable. He uses a combination of fundamental and technical analysis. We talked about the invention of paper money by the Chinese in the 10th century and their...

What Have The Central Banks Of The World Done Now?December 1, 2011 The central banks of the world are acting as if it is 2008 all over again. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now the central bankers are pulling out all the stops. The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank have announced a coordinated plan to provide liquidity support to the global financial system. According to the plan, the Federal Reserve is going to substantially reduce the interest rate that...

Central Banks Net Buyers of Gold for 1st Time in 20 Years Published: Monday, 19 Sep 2011 | 2:55 AM ET By: Jack Farchy, Financial Times European central banks have become net buyers of gold for the first time in more than two decades, the latest sign of how the turbulence in the currency and debt markets has revolutionized the bullion market. The purchases are minuscule compared with the size of the global gold market, but highlight a remarkable turnaround from a wave of heavy selling by European central banks. The role of central banks in the gold market will...

Interest rate historian and contrarian guru James Grant put the double-whammy actions of Ben Bernanke and President Obama into perfect perspective Thursday when he noted that the Fed had moved past "central banking into central planning." Bingo! Grant went on to say that the Fed was "trying to impose prosperity through manipulation." Bingo again! Think about that phrase -- "to impose prosperity through manipulation." It is brilliantly succinct and accurate in describing what is going on in our nation's economy.

Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank - this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal: I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.

An unprecedented press conference was held in Washington on Wednesday – one that should have been convened a long time ago. And no, it wasn't the one to announce publication of Barack Obama's birth certificate, but rather the first of its kind by the US Federal Reserve. Believe it or not, the Fed has never before made itself directly answerable to the fourth estate for its monetary policy decisions. Accountability and explanation have instead been pursued through official statements, speech-giving, congressional committees and selective background briefings. After nearly 100 years at the helm of the US economy, the Fed has...

$105 per barrel oil. Cotton prices at record levels. Food prices at 2008 highs. Typically, such commodity price increases would send central banks running to the U.S. Dollar to secure the value of their savings. After all, the dollar has been the reserve currency since World War I. But not this time. Central banks are shedding dollars [DXC1 76.48 0.105 (+0.14%) ], reducing their holdings by about $9 billion in previous quarter, according to Nomura Securities’ Jens Nordvig, global head of G10 FX Strategy. What are they buying instead? Gold [GCCV1 1417.40 -2.50 (-0.18%) ]. The yellow metal hit a...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard the head economic poncho at the Telegraph now nearly 2 years from starting his mantra of deficit spending stimulus to prevent a debt deleveraging deflationary depression turns around and says that he has been wrong all along, that central banks such as the US Fed are focused on creating inflation rather than preventing deflation..."I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking...

Basel III Gutted, Delayed As Even Existing Regulatory Regime Too Burdensome For An Insolvent Banking Industry Tyler Durden on 07/27/2010 03:56 -0500 In light of recent bombastic statements by priests of Keynesian fundamentalism that European banking is one big, non-dysfunctional, even healthy family, it would have been the logical thing that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision would if not tighten terms on proposed Basel III implementation, then at least keep them as is. Why is why news that the recently proposed adjustments to Basel III which not only delayed implementation of the "regulatory" framework by many years, allowing banks...

Foreign governments have been getting in on the recent gold rush, driven by continued fears about Europe's debt crisis and the pace of the global economic recovery. Those concerns have been propelling the precious metal to record highs over the past 18 months. In fact, gold posted a new intra-day high Friday, when it reached $1,260.90 an ounce. A day earlier, it reached a fresh record high closing price of $1,248.70 an ounce. Last year, foreign central banks were net buyers of gold for the first time since 1997. India, China and Russia have been the biggest buyers. And more...

Central banks around the world on Sunday night announced they would restore currency swap agreements that were introduced during the financial crisis, in an attempt to ease the strain on banks caused by the European sovereign debt crisis. The move by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, and the Swiss National Bank was part of an audacious coordinated package by global authorities to combat escalating financial market tensions, including an emergency funding facility worth as much as €720bn in loan guarantees and credits. The Bank of Japan was meeting on Monday...